Maintain dignity as the old guard passes

Published: Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 07:33 PM.

After reading Mac McGee’s March 23 letter to the editor headlined, “America under Obama is in perilous straits,” I’m compelled to say something.

Like my older brother, McGee is suffering from the shock of a political power shift that is well under way.

America has been politically, religiously, philosophically and economically dominated by the values and opinions of white, male, upper- and middle-class citizens. I’m one of them; but that has changed and there’s nothing we, the baby boomers, can do about it. We can rant and rave and call decent family men tyrants and traitors because the First Amendment allows us to do so, but it only makes us look desperate and foolish and, frankly, out of touch with real world events occurring beyond our imagined utopia.

I fought in Vietnam — a military veteran of 27 years. Afterward, I went to college and earned an honors degree in history. It was a tremendous eye-opener for a naive country boy who had never considered that there could be other opinions in the world.

To my brother and McGee and others of the same vitriol, I offer this observation: Nothing is as bad or as good as we imagine — not ourselves or others.

I do not believe and the majority of Americans do not believe that President Barack Obama is a traitor or a communist. Shame on McGee.

After reading Mac McGee’s March 23 letter to the editor headlined, “America under Obama is in perilous straits,” I’m compelled to say something.

Like my older brother, McGee is suffering from the shock of a political power shift that is well under way.

America has been politically, religiously, philosophically and economically dominated by the values and opinions of white, male, upper- and middle-class citizens. I’m one of them; but that has changed and there’s nothing we, the baby boomers, can do about it. We can rant and rave and call decent family men tyrants and traitors because the First Amendment allows us to do so, but it only makes us look desperate and foolish and, frankly, out of touch with real world events occurring beyond our imagined utopia.

I fought in Vietnam — a military veteran of 27 years. Afterward, I went to college and earned an honors degree in history. It was a tremendous eye-opener for a naive country boy who had never considered that there could be other opinions in the world.

To my brother and McGee and others of the same vitriol, I offer this observation: Nothing is as bad or as good as we imagine — not ourselves or others.

I do not believe and the majority of Americans do not believe that President Barack Obama is a traitor or a communist. Shame on McGee.

I have to say that compared to the previous president’s reign, Obama has done a much better job of not damaging our reputation around the world and he hasn’t engineered the unnecessary deaths of thousands of young men and women in another bogus, unnecessary war. His economic policies have not damaged us like the former president’s policies did because Congress hasn’t passed a single budget he submitted. Somehow, we conveniently forget that fact.

The era of white-male-dominated politics is over. We’re not “in charge” anymore. We’re a minority vote in American politics and, yes, it’s painful; but please try to salvage some dignity for our age group by not embarrassing all of us.